Monday, September 19, 2011

If you have a website, maybe a social media presence and the need to reach a large base of vendors, partners and customers, email marketing — and specifically email newsletters — are a great way to nurture those relationships. Sharing company blogs, links to company social media sites, company announcements and surveys are ideal for email distribution plus the cost for newsletter subscription services are low and the reach can be substantial.

So, where do you start?

Content. It all starts with content, including blogs, promotional pricing, links to specific sites and topics that could be of interest to the reader and are relevant to your company’s products/services. Remember to include only original information; do not plagiarize other sources. However, you may be able to secure permission from an author or publisher to use their work.

When developing your own content, think about every word as a driver for a specific goal. For example, if you are promoting a 10-day discount on widgets, you will want to specifically mention the widget, describe the details behind the discount, provide information on why the widget is a “hot" commodity, why the viewer should choose your widget and provide a link for the viewer to get more information about the widget.

It is also a good idea to embed images relative to your topic. Like articles, you need to have permission to use these images, so you should consider using your own photos/charts or subscribe to a stock photo service where you can purchase the rights to use the photos.

Length. The goal of the newsletter is to encourage the viewer to click through to a desired Web page with further information. Here is an example:

5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS MAINTAIN YOUR WIDGETIt is a good idea to maintain your widget by cleaning the parts monthly. (Insert the URL LINK to the page that talks in more detail about this topic.)

Monday, June 13, 2011

We have been working with multiple companies developing social media profiles lately. In the efforts of building a branding and consistent character basis for companies, we have seen more and more that there are too many companies without a presence on LinkedIn. Not talking about an individual profile - which is very concerning that over 3.5 million users are on the site, but yet millions more haven't ventured into building a profile is overwhelming. To start there, if you don't have a presence on this site as an individual, you are telling the world that either you don't want to be connected to, you aren't savvy with the Internet, or you would rather spamming sites publish information about you instead. One of the most beautiful things about LinkedIn is the searchability factor through google. 4 out of 5 customers will search LinkedIn for their potential vendor representative (or potential new hire) to gain character perspective and knowledge about this person. If you don't choose to put information about your history that you want people to see, they will find out information about you on sites that pay a lot of money to Google to post personal things such as pictures of your home, family members & so on (an example of this is 123people & there are many other sites out there who "phish" for your information & post it freely online). Should you ever find something like this - you can contact the publisher for it to be removed. Know that the most important piece of us mentioning this - is the fact that THE INFORMATION YOU WANT POSTED ON THE INTERNET - SHOULD BE THE INFORMATION THAT YOU CHOOSE TO BE POSTED - NOT WHAT SOMEONE ELSE DECIDES FOR YOU!

This holds true about information for your company. If you don't have a website - how will your customers know what you offer & if you are a real business person? Same with social media. If you are not "out there" and "current" how will people know how to do business with you, connect with you, follow you and want to maintain relationship with you????

With that being said, as a business owner you have thought about a few things:

(1) what is my logo?(2) what is my brand?(3) where will I market?(4) how will I market?(5) who will I market to?(6) build a website

Will all of these things in place, there is still a laundry list of things that need to happen as well.

FACTS:(1) If you have a website, it will have either detailed - or not as detailed - information about your products/services(2) You may be choosing some print marketing or mailers for your potential or existing customers

These are important - but what should go in hand with this?

***SOCIAL MEDIA***

If you have a personal presence on Facebook, you should NOT be marketing your company on your "personal" page, rather you should have a business page where people can "like" your company and follow your updates.

If you have a personal profile on LinkedIn, you need to be sure your company profile is established as well so people can easily find you through your company or your personal profile. Individuals can also "like" your company page for updates. You should also have recommendations of your work that your customers, vendors or staff can post about you - this is a great character building piece and can also encourage a history of your experience.

A newer feature of LinkedIn is posting products & services. The great thing about this is you can get recommendations for these products or services right on the company page - a great marketing tool.

My challenge for you - If you have a personal presence on FaceBook or LinkedIn - then create a company profile for them both. It will increase visibility, credibility & ownership of your brand.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Tools are the most important key to help you manage all of your most important social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Utilizing tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck, Radian 6, UberSocial, etc., will change how you interact with your connections online. . . .

Saturday, March 12, 2011

LinkedIn is a great tool to connect with friends, coworkers, and professional acquaintances; but, most importantly it is most used to build your network to access resources for business. It is very important to maximize your time in this professional social site due to your visibility online. Your new LinkedIn connections find opportunities to connect with you on a business level because of your activity on the site. Somewhat like Facebook, but in a professional environment, you can post a status update (“Share an update”), send internal messages, communicate through Groups, create or answer polls and also embed applications in your profile to share in your travel, presentations, video, books you are reading and other applications to boost your presence in a creative way. . . .

Saturday, March 5, 2011

In the world of posting whatever, when ever, there is a lot to be said about quality time with Twitter. Twitter can be utilized in a multitude of ways. Any user can post updates about news, links, promotions, events, topics of interest, engage in customer support and participate in online discussions. As an individual or business, you need to decide how you will engage in this forum.

If you have over 100 people you are following, it can be difficult to keep track of the latest updates as twitter is an active stream of personal opinion, back and forth discussions and buzz about thoughts or activities. . . .

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

For consulting, support or ramp up into these spaces with optimized SEO, SMO and key placement, our team has developed a process to quickly get you up to date, active and searchable on these major sites. Build your client portfolio, grow your business and stay in touch with your customers on a weekly basis using customizable tools to manage your spaces. Just having a business card or website isn't enough anymore to manage an effective retention base.

When exploring the world of social media you will find that it is easy for the social sites to claim time you have allocated to work. It is best to put into practice time allocation to optimize your online schedule. With Facebook, you have probably connected to family, friends, coworkers, business partners and a myriad of other individuals that you find yourself “living life” with online. The ability to visit their pages to view pictures, post comments on their status updates, read notes and view videos; you can quickly become inundated with the absence of time. . . .

Monday, February 28, 2011

You have created your social media presence, your branding is consistent and you find yourself spending hours each day on any given social media site scrolling, searching, reading and posting for hours on end. But the question begs to be asked, is this how the social media world was intended or is there a better way to coordinate your time in these spaces?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Qwest hosted a wonderful Business Partner show 01/13-01/14. We were grateful to be able to attend this year to reconnect with a few of our customers. It is also great to catch up with those of you who we have known for many years in the industry and meet newer faces.

Qwest was very generous this year and gifted Flip Video cameras to the business partners. We recorded some of our adventure and have for you here.

The hot topic of discussion this year was Cloud Computing. We are excited and curious to see what the business channel does with that product this year.

There was also a lot of buzz about social media which is very exciting for us. It was great to be able to brain storm ideas for agents looking forward to launching a program this year, in addition to hearing the success of such agents as TBI with the social media solution.

We heard a lot of Agents talk about the shift in telecom as we know it. Technology is breathing a new life into this economy and we are glad to be a part of this transition.

Hats off to QBPP for bringing the Partners together with encouragement, enthusiasm and the always funny host.

Clere Comm Interview

About Clere Communications

We help Telecommunications Agents grow their business. Our focus is Project Management, Back Office Support, Auditing, Commissions Database Support, Social Media Support, Training and Consulting services. We are not Agents for any carriers.
Specifically, our organization is designed to be your back office support or overflow support. Our clients are typically Agents, Sub Agents, TEM Providers & CPE Vendors who need assistance in network design, RFPs, pricing, proposals, audits, inventories, contracts, order management, implementation, hot cuts, repair issues, billing issues, commissions management and social networking support.
We have developed a carrier standard and certification process for project managers and auditors that is streamline with any carrier.
Please visit our website www.clerecomm.com for more information.